Marketing

he days of mass marketing are coming to an end as we enter a new era of personal marketing.  As technology advances, marketers are able to gather more and more data about prospective customers and reach them in new and innovative ways.  As these changes develop, its important that marketers recognize the changes taking place and change their tactics to match the changes in technology.

Until recently, marketers have pretty much taken a "mass media" approach to their efforts:  Blast out as many marketing messages as possible on every medium available as often as you can afford it.  In an era when it's not really possible to learn anything about the audience and their tastes, this crude shotgun method of attack is pretty much the only option.  Mass marketing tactics are really just slightly more sophisticated versions of standing on the street corner yelling at people who walk by, hoping that some small percentage of them might be interested in what you have to say.

Mass marketing is already evolving toward a more personalized touch, and as this happens more and more, prospective customers will start to demand it.  Consumers are already extremely savvy about filtering out messages that are irrelevant to them.  Think about your own behavior; while reading articles online, most of us have learned to simply filter out anything on the screen that is flashing or blinking, or flying across the page because we know that these are irrelevant ads that must use these kinds of tactics to get out attention.

In contrast, contextually relevant, unobtrusive, text-only ads, such as Google Adsense, are a new targeted approach that are a step in the right direction toward more personal marketing. Critics of these kinds of ads say that the cost per conversion can be higher — the higher cost is not justified if the conversion rate is low.  This criticism hits on the key difference between mass marketing and personal marketing:  personal marketing does require a more intelligent game plan...